The Failure of the Three Minute Rule

Many towns, cities and states have time limits on vehicle idling. Three minutes seems to be a particularly popular choice. I’m sure the decision makers who legislate a three minute limit on vehicle idling have the best intentions. But if they think their regulations are going to protect children at school, they’re badly misinformed.

If you’ve ever stood outside an elementary school at the end of the school day, you know what bedlam can be! Kids going in all directions, toting backpacks, musical instruments and school projects. Excitement is high, there is plenty of jostling, and occasionally some pushing and shoving. There is laughing, yelling and waving and sometimes even crying. 

While all this is going on, the adult bus monitors struggle to keep track of their group of kids and make sure the right kids get on the right bus. It’s not an easy job.

Now, in this scenario, who is going to keep track of exactly how long a particular school bus has been idling its engine? Who will know when the three minutes have expired? If you guessed no one, you’re right!

Which is why time limits for vehicle idling are completely ineffective at protecting children from exposure to diesel exhaust. That’s why a real no-idling policy for all motor vehicles on school property is the only real solution.

No Idling Zones

A few years ago we had the opportunity to interview Dr. John Wargo of Yale University for a documentary film we were making about children’s health. He told the story of placing a tiny air monitor in his son’s pocket before sending him off to school, When his son returned at the end of the day, John took the air monitor to the lab at Yale to analyze his son’s exposures to various air pollutants during the day. What he saw shocked him!

There were two big spikes: a moderate one at the beginning of the day, and a large and sustained spike at the end of the day. It didn’t take long to finger John’s son’s school bus as the likely culprit.

So they conducted tests inside the school bus. Sure enough. Air quality tests conducted inside the bus showed very high levels of toxic air pollutants, and the reason was obvious for anyone to see. School buses, lined up one behind the other with their engines running, quickly filled with diesel exhaust as children were boarding. The buses then shut their doors for the ride home, trapping the exhaust inside with the kids.

Diesel exhaust is one of those things you want to avoid if you possibly can. According to the scientists at EPA, there is no safe level of exposure, since diesel exhaust is a known cause of both lung cancer and asthma. It’s also been linked to breast cancer and other diseases.

A No-Idling Policy for schools is a quick and easy way to cut down on your child’s exposure to a known carcinogen and asthma trigger. If your school still allows school buses to idle, maybe it’s time to do something about it.

Getting started...with pesticides!

Like all parents, we were always concerned about the health and safety of our kids, and particularly, how they were being affected by chemicals in the environment.  At home we ate organic food, maintained our lawn without pesticides, avoided things like fabric softeners and chemical air fresheners, and used natural cleaning products. But once our kids got to school, we knew someone else would be making decisions that affected their environment. What did they know? 

Not much, as it turned out.

Our first brush with toxins at school was with the friendly groundskeeper at the elementary school where Patti and a few parents had started a school garden. One day he casually volunteered to spray the perimeter of the garden with pesticides to kill the weeds.  A few minutes later Patti was in the Principal's office discussing the health risks associated with exposure to pesticides, and inquiring as to why pesticides were being used at our kids' school.

That night around the dining room table we wrote the first public school policy prohibiting pesticides on fields and grounds. A few weeks later, it was passed by our local school board, and the ChildSafe School program became reality.

Fast forward to today: the “Child Safe Playing Fields Act” prohibiting the use of pesticides on school playing fields and green spaces for grades K-12 is the law all over New York State!